Sunday, 25 August 2013

I stamped a half panel of card using the mini blooms stamp set in the ink colours provided above, once that was done I cut the panel into strips and run the strips through my xyron and covered them in prisma glitter and adhered to the card with phone pads. It came out much better that expected and it keeps catching my eye as it sits on my desk in the sun :)

This was a nice easy challenge to get started, choose a colour scheme and a sketch to make a nice quick card. I popped the stamped buttons up with foam pads, if I had more time I would have added thread to the middles as i'm not keen on threadless buttons! I added a sparkly panel and stamped the sentiment in co-ordinating ink.

I always have tea stained cotton seam binding ribbon on hand as it is the most popular item in my Etsy store. I stamped the ribbon with berry sorbet and spring moss using the Stitches and Swirls stamp set, unfortunately it bled quite badly, I forgot that I usually stamp with Staz-On on ribbon :( I stamped the background and coloured it with promarkers, adding a pin and stamped tag. There should be pearls in the centres of the flowers, I've just realised I forgot them!

So, this card was the hardest for me and it's not exactly my best :( I didn't have any paperclay as was suggested so I used fimo air. I rolled out the clay and laid fillable frames #4 die on the top and pressed lightly, I then removed the die and cut round the indentation with a craft knife, stamped the flowers in each corner and the word birthday in the middle, once dry it was given a couple of coats of gesso.

My intention was to rub pink paint over the whole label and then wipe it off leaving the paint in the indentations, that did NOT work! I have repainted this darn thing so many times and had to resort to painting all the details with some diluted raspberry fizz ink, yes, that's why the word looks wonky! I adhered it to my prepared panel using super tacky glue. The flowers and leaved were stamped then quickly water coloured.

I knew I wanted a blue background but unfortunately do not own any Hawaiian shores cardstock, so I decided to spray my own! I mixed up a mist using Hawaiian shores and turquoise perfect pearls and sprayed this over Lace Bouquet that has been embossed with white embossing powder. I die cut the banner from Stitched Sentiments and stamped the sentiment with coordinating ink. In a couple of days I think i will go back to this card and add a frame of white stitching as I feel it needs that little extra something.

I took my cues from the card that Nichole created for this challenge. I stamped with daydreamer (my favourite!) then added dot of PVA glue over every large stamped dot and covered it all with table salt and let it dry for 2 hours. Once dry I brushed off the salt and used water colours to each salted dot and left to dry, I then finished it off with a stamped sentiment from scrolling script and a doodled border. It was an interesting technique but a bit too messy for me!

I used this card by Debbie Olson as a rough sketch of what I wanted to do. Fortunately I had already stamped and coloured the image so it was easy to put together. I used a gallon of red, a quart of green and a pint of yellow! Out of all the cards I have made for this challenge, this is my husband's favourite, but I think that's because he can be a glutton when it comes to strawberries!

This is my favourite as it came out just how I wanted! I die cut 2 large clouds from white shrink plastic, punched a hole near the top and shrunk it with my heat gun, painted it with glitter and let it dry overnight. I die cut a partial cloud from my glitter card panel then stitched it to the card base, along with a strip of turquoise vellum that had been stamped and embossed with my sentiment, I then die cut another cloud and embossed it with an embossing folder, I attached the clouds and a small silver star to each earring base and lightly adhered the finished earrings to the back of the cloud before adhering to my card base.

It needed an little extra something so I die cut another cloud from shrink plastic, shrank it and glued it near the top right. I love, love, love it! I don't want to give it away but I did make it with a special person in mind so I'll have to part with it soon.

This was a fun foray into scratch and sniff! I used to love scratch and sniff stickers as a child, the ones that stand out the most were the Garfield stickers that smelt of lasagne! I won't go into detail on the process as this video explains it all perfectly. I chose strawberry for mine and stamped extra strawberries for myself and my husband to try so we didn't ruin the card and we were both amazed that the process works so well! I can't wait to experiment with different scents.

If you follow the link you will see the basic supplies that you were allowed to use for this challenge. I used the headline alphabet stamps and dies for the words and had to go through my card stash for card that resembled the colours required and added them as a simple stripe with a glitter stripe to finish it off.

The final challenge was to create a glittered embellishment. I cut strips of coloured card and glued them to some plain paper, i then covered that with prisma glitter and die cut the word hello. I handcut a speech bubble and added faux stitching around the edges, i then stamped the word friend using the wonderful words set of stamps and popped up the word hello using foam dots. Once this was adhered to the card I used a hole punch on the striped scraps and added the 3 glittery dots.

*Phew* I am tired from all that creating, I have never, ever completed 10 cards in one weekend before (regular readers will know about my propensity to procrastinate) and I am not sure I will again for a little while, however, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenges and look forward to participating next year.

Please visit Nichole's blog to see all the other fantastic entries made by cardmakers all over the world!

Monday, 19 August 2013

I haven't had much crafty time over the past few days, however here's one I finished a little while ago. Unfortunately my masking wasn't at it's best and the sentiment isn't bright enough, but I still like it's zingy colours!

Tuesday, 13 August 2013

I had an idea of a peach, navy and gold card, which only really came together after I bought the floral stamp set. I stamped the flowers in Adirondack salmon ink and the leaves in gold pigment ink adding pearls and gold studs. The sentiment is heat embossed and the glitter strips are from DCWV.

Here is the trigger inspiration

I like how clean and fresh the colours look together, however I took the navy accent colour from the inspiration image and paired it with warmer colours. Have you thought about joining in? The details can be found here.

Thursday, 8 August 2013

I used the Birds and Blooms Anniversary set, particularly the 2 step wreath blooms to stamp the background and then filled in some of the spaces with the single flower images. I finished it with some gems and seam binding ribbon, the frame is from 2012 anniversary set Pretty Peonies and the sentiment is from Cutting Garden.

Wednesday, 7 August 2013

I used Buttoned Up die #1 from Papertrey Ink to die cut the buttons, they were then stamped with the patchwork circles stamp from the Strawberry Patch stamp set in various colours of aqua ink (Adirondack Aqua, PTI Aqua Mist and Hawaiian Shores, Ranger Archival Turquoise and PTI Ocean Tides). I am still in love with ombre look so I am afraid that you'll be seeing it on some more cards!

I die cut the word 'you' from aqua glitter card stock, however it got lost amidst the buttons so I swapped it out with a white die cut and used the aqua one for inside of the card. Additional sentiments are from PTI Wonderful Words Additions.

I am always challenged by CAS-ual Fridays as it's not my usual style but I like to try and step outside of my own comfort zone once in a while and these challenges are perfect!

Tuesday, 6 August 2013

I adore collage style cards and all the beautiful images really inspired me. I took various elements from the picture; butterflies, script writing, flowers, stamps and postmarks to combine them into my card.

I was fortunate enough to be given a big box of old stamps by my dad and there are some real beauties in there including the pretty blue bird one that I ended up using. The cigarette card is vintage from the 1920's and I am lucky enough to have quite a few, I can't wait to incorporate them on other projects.

Monday, 5 August 2013

Just a quick post today with a card I made for my best friend who lives overseas. When I saw the Mint Julep paper line by Basic Grey I knew that I had to have it, the bright colours and florals are just perfect together and of course I went to my favourite type of card, patchwork!

I die cut hexagons from a number of different papers in the 6x6 pad with my silhouette and pieced them together, I did briefly consider sewing them together but quickly dismissed it as a foolish notion in this unseasonably hot weather. I added a chipboard frame and sentiment from the printed chipboard pack, some prima lace, American Crafts glitter ribbon and a beautiful brad. I will admit that I hoard pretty fabric brads and find it hard to part with them, but, as she's my best friend I guess she's worth it ;)